1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to baitcasting reels, and more particularly to a baitcasting reel including an opening defined in one of right and left side bodies provided in opposite sides of a rotary member for taking up a fishing line thereto and allowing the rotary member to be removed therethrough, an openable and closable lid for closing and exposing the opening, a lock mechanism operable to lock said lid in a closed position, and an unlock control member for moving the lock mechanism to an unlocking position.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of conventional baitcasting reels as noted above comprises an openable and closable lid screwed to an opening defined in a side body, and a lid control member only used for attaching and detaching the lid to/from the side body. The lid is attachable and removable by the lid control member, while being locked and unlocked as attached to the side body by an unlock control member.
In order to remove the rotary member through the opening in such a conventional structure, the angler firstly unlocks the lid by the unlock control member and then shifts his or her hand to the lid control member to remove the lid, thereby to remove the rotary member. Thus, the angler has to carry out a two-step operation, i.e. to unlock the lid and subsequently remove the lid, which results in a time-consuming operation of shifting his or her hand from the unlock control member to the lid control member. Further, a locking position is set to a fixed position, which requires the lid to be attached to a predetermined position. However, the reel using a screw structure cannot determine the attaching position of the lid and thus is somewhat difficult to employ.
In view of the above, the same applicant proposes a means for solving such an operating problem in Japanese Utility Model Application "Kokai" No. 2-81172, for example. In this prior art, engaging means having a reduced width is defined in an end of the unlock control member, while engaged means is defined in an opening edge of the side body. When the unlock control member is set to a contained position corresponding to the locking position, the engaging means engages the engaged means, thereby to lock the lid. After the unlock control member is rotated from this position to project from the side body and assume a raised unlocking position, the angler holds the raised unlock control member and rotates the lid with the unlock control member to remove the lid.
Such a structure provides a good operative efficiency in that the angler only rotates the unlock control member switched to the unlocking position without shifting his or her hand.
However, since the unlock control member is also utilized as the lock mechanism, a reaction force required in a locking operation is applied to the unlock control member in the locking position. As a result, a primary operation of switching the unlock control member from the contained position to the unlocking position sometimes lacks in smoothness. More particularly, when the unlock control member is oscillated to shift from the contained position to the unlocking position, an oscillating direction is perpendicular to a rotating direction for screwing the lid to the reel. Therefore, the unlock control member receives a reaction force from the engaged means in the contained position in a direction perpendicular to the oscillating direction, which possibly prevents a smooth oscillation of the unlock control member during use for a long period.